PAR Meter?

[cactusreef]

I know this has been discussed previously but it’s been a while.

Is renting a par meter worth it? I don’t see many places that do that anymore but I don’t want to buy a fancy one to take a few measurements and not use it again. Is there a cheaper alternative to testing PAR? Does anyone know where to rent one online?

 

[Michael Hughes]

I bought a (relatively) cheap one on Amazon.

I found a PAR meter incredibly helpful for visualizing which parts of my scape are getting more light than others. There were some surprising findings, such as one spot on the sandbed getting 140 PAR while the rest was 90-100.

Others use watts per gallon as a rough estimate, but I personally found the specifics from my PAR meter very helpful. I still refer to the PAR map when placing new frags.

 

[JTP424]

I bought the cheapo on amazon as well. I think if you have more than one tank, plan on moving EVER or trading with other reefers it's beneficial to have to keep an eye on where things are across tanks.

 

[mmorrison55]

It’s a good tool to have in your repertoire, but honestly idk if they are needed.

I bought a nice one from brs that they “rent out” and then once it comes back, they sell it.so got it for a decent price. I used it once to get a general idea what par my lights were putting out throughout my tank.

But once my tank starts filling in and I have a lot of shadowing caused by the top level corals, it might come in handy again to re-measure.

 

[Freenow54]

I know this has been discussed previously but it’s been a while.

Is renting a par meter worth it? I don’t see many places that do that anymore but I don’t want to buy a fancy one to take a few measurements and not use it again. Is there a cheaper alternative to testing PAR? Does anyone know where to rent one online?

I don't know if you can find it . But Orphek just sent me an email regarding that subject . I have yet to read it . See if its posted on their site. Ask them about renting one , they might know. You will find quite a few people are very opinionated for , and against. I own an Apogee and mapped my Aquarium before adding coral , basically to find dead spots . You cant tell with your eyes . BRS used to . I don't live in the US , and never looked at their policy. I have seen other members say they have found where to rent hope they reply. If not try #reefsquad in a repost

 

[Waters]

I find PAR meters to be almost a necessity. Knowing where your numbers are based on coral location is invaluable. Yes, you can get by without one just by watching coral and making adjustments but it is so much easier with a meter lol.

 

[Troylee]

Pick up a vrbo or dano plus off amazon both cheap and work well.

 

[cactusreef]

Pick up a vrbo or dano plus off amazon both cheap and work well.

Yeah? Maybe I’ll pick up one of the cheaper Amazon ones and hope it is at least somewhat accurate.

 

[BeanAnimal]

I honestly see no practical use. Buy a light and set it up to match the settings that other people are using with that light on similar size tanks.

There are not "target" numbers that are reliable, different brands of meters are going to read differently, by a large margin, add in user error and that it does account for spectrum, and it is a feel good number at best.

Even the idea of "mapping" is a bit useless. Coral are going to grow out of their "mapped" areas, shadow each other, etc.

Higher is more energy, lower less. Directly under the light is more energy, further away less. Shadows less energy, etc, The "number" returned by the meter is rather useless.

 

[PPBlimpy]

I bought an apogee from a local.

Whenever we do tank crawls in our local group I offer to bring it to map the hosts tank. Turns into a little class and everyone can help figure out coral placement.

I will generally help map a locals tank for a couple frags. I do not loan it out because its a USB one and my laptop goes with it

 

[exnisstech]

It's a tool, some find them useful and some don't. I find it a very useful tool especially since I tend to move coral around. I bought an appogee 510 and like it. I would probably go the cheaper route as suggested above. I bought Snapon tools for 30 years so over spending for tools is normal for me lol..

 

[Fish Fan]

I had an older Apogee from years ago, that one didn't play well with LED lights.

I refuse to spend $500+ on a new Apogee for LED's, so I now have the inexpensive VBR Aqua from Amazon that @Troylee mentioned. It might not be as accurate as the Apogee instruments, but it's great for a rough idea.

VBR Aqua PAR meter on Amazon

I will say that I see the newer Apogee's on the R2R MArketplace frequently enough, if that helps.

 

[The Ugly Phase]

bought mine for about £200 always handy to have